An R Package for Open, Reproducible Analysis of Urban Water Systems, With Application to Chicago

Area of Science:

• Environmental science
• Hydrology
• Urban planning

Background:

• Urban water systems involve complex interactions between natural and engineered water flows.
• Mass balance models are crucial for understanding these intricate systems by tracking water storages and flows.
• Existing methods for urban water system analysis can be labor-intensive and lack reproducibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce CityWaterBalance, a novel R package for modeling urban water systems.
• To provide a reproducible workflow for quantitative assessment of urban water flows using open data and R functions.
• To enable flexible analysis by allowing users to easily adjust spatial and temporal boundaries.

Main Methods:

• Development of a generic urban water system model within the R package CityWaterBalance.
• Facilitation of automated open data retrieval and post-processing using open-source R functions.
• Application of the model to the Chicago metropolitan area for monthly water balance assessment (2001-2010).

Main Results:

• The CityWaterBalance package enables rapid assembly of comprehensive urban water flow assessments.
• The model successfully evaluated the Chicago metropolitan water system over a ten-year period.
• Analysis considered the effects of management strategies for stormwater and sewer overflows, and potential impacts of precipitation changes.

Conclusions:

• CityWaterBalance offers a reproducible and flexible tool for studying complex urban water systems.
• The model facilitates quantitative assessment and scenario analysis for urban water management.
• This approach is valuable for understanding the implications of management decisions and climate change on urban water resources.